Privacy Policy
The short version
Seedkeep stores your garden records and photos in your iCloud garden. Its service stores the account information needed for Sign in with Apple, your manually entered home ZIP and derived coarse location, and packet scans and corrections contributed to the shared seed catalog. Seedkeep has no advertising, tracking, analytics, or telemetry, and does not sell your data. The sections below explain the services that receive data to provide these features.
What we collect
- Account information — your Sign in with Apple identifier, Seedkeep account and household identifiers, and the name or email Apple provides if you choose to share them. The Seedkeep service uses this information to authenticate you and operate your account.
- Garden content — seed inventory, storage locations, tags, notes, garden beds, planting events, journal entries, checklists, and seed or journal photos. This content is stored in your private CloudKit garden and, when you share a garden, the associated CloudKit share.
- Packet scans and catalog contributions — the front-and-back packet photos, barcode when available, extracted packet fields, model identifier, and confidence values. The app submits these through your authenticated account to Seedkeep's shared catalog service.
- Catalog corrections — suggested field changes, explanatory notes, and their review status. These are stored with your account so you can see the outcome in the app.
- Coarse home location — the 5-digit US ZIP you enter in You → Settings → Home location, plus the coarse coordinates, USDA zone, and frost dates derived from it. Seedkeep uses these for planting guidance and WeatherKit forecasts.
- Service-operation data — hosting providers and service logs may process an IP address, request time, endpoint, and error details to deliver requests, secure the service, prevent abuse, and diagnose failures. Seedkeep does not use this information for advertising or cross-app tracking.
What we don't collect
- Seedkeep does not use analytics, telemetry, crash-reporting SDKs, advertising IDs, or fingerprinting.
- The current app has no advertising, subscription, in-app purchase, or hosted AI tier.
- Seedkeep does not request Core Location and does not collect precise, continuous, or background location. Location comes only from the ZIP you enter.
- Seedkeep does not read your contacts, calendars, or microphone. It accesses the camera or photos only when you choose to capture or select an image for a Seedkeep feature.
- Seedkeep does not sell, rent, or trade your data, and does not use it to train Seedkeep-owned AI models.
AI extraction
The current app offers two ways to extract packet information from photos:
- Free (on-device) — Apple Vision and Foundation Models perform the extraction on your device. Afterward, the app submits the front-and-back packet photos and structured result to Seedkeep's authenticated shared-catalog service.
- BYOK (bring your own key) — you choose Anthropic or OpenAI and save your API key in the device Keychain. Seedkeep sends the packet photos directly from your device to that provider for extraction; the key never reaches Seedkeep's service. The provider's terms and privacy policy govern that request. The app then submits the same packet photos and structured result to Seedkeep's shared catalog.
Shared catalog
When you scan a barcode, Seedkeep first checks whether the shared catalog already knows the packet. A new extraction contributes the packet photos, structured fields, and confidence data so future scans can match it. Catalog submissions are authenticated and are conservatively treated as linked to your account for privacy disclosure, even though the catalog shown to other users does not display the contributor's identity.
A shared catalog entry may remain after account deletion because it has become reusable catalog data rather than part of a household garden. Contact us if you have a concern about a specific catalog contribution.
Household sharing
Garden sharing uses Apple's CloudKit sharing system. From You → Settings, an owner can choose “Share garden via iCloud” and send Apple's invitation. An accepted participant can view and edit the shared seed library, garden plan, journal, and photos. A participant can choose “Leave shared garden”; the owner can manage the share through Apple's sharing controller. CloudKit sharing does not send the garden's record contents to the Seedkeep service.
Location, WeatherKit, and notifications
When you save a home ZIP, the Seedkeep service resolves it to coarse coordinates, a USDA zone, and frost dates. The app caches those values and uses the coordinates to request a local forecast from Apple WeatherKit. Seedkeep does not request your device's location. Notifications are scheduled locally on your device for features you enable; the current app does not use remote push notifications.
Children
Seedkeep is rated 4+ and contains no objectionable content. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you're a parent and discover your child has created a Seedkeep account, email taylor.finklea@gmail.com.
Data retention & deletion
Garden content remains in its CloudKit garden until you delete the content, leave the share, or complete account deletion. To delete your account in the app, choose You → Delete account and confirm “Delete my account.” Opening the flow alone deletes nothing. The resumable flow handles your CloudKit role before deleting the Seedkeep account last:
- Participant — leaves the accepted share without deleting the owner's or other participants' garden.
- Solo owner — deletes the owned CloudKit garden and then the Seedkeep account.
- Owner with accepted participants — must hand the garden to an existing participant and verify the copy before the original garden and departing account can be deleted.
Shared catalog entries may remain as described above. Minimal deletion receipts and operational records may also be retained when needed to verify completion, prevent replay or abuse, comply with law, or resolve a support request; they cannot restore a deleted garden or account.
Where data lives
Garden records and garden photos live in Apple's CloudKit under your private database or an accepted share. The official Seedkeep service runs on Fly.io in the United States; its Postgres database stores account and catalog records, and Cloudflare R2 stores shared packet images. Network requests use TLS. Apple, Fly.io, Cloudflare, and—only when you choose BYOK—Anthropic or OpenAI process data as service providers under their own terms and privacy policies.
Seedkeep is open-source and can connect to a separately operated Seedkeep server. If you choose a server other than the official service, that server's operator controls its server-side data practices; this policy covers the official Seedkeep service.
Changes
If what Seedkeep collects or how it uses data changes, this page and the “Effective” date will be updated. Additional notice will be provided when required by law.
Contact
Questions, requests, or anything else: taylor.finklea@gmail.com